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Comic-Making

 Failing The Bechdel Test. Twice. On purpose.

March 8, 2012October 18, 2022 vaehling Writing

A recent Geek Life podcast brought up the Bechdel test again. You know the one – based on a strip by Alison Bechdel about not watching movies that don’t have at least two female characters who at least once have a conversation that’s not about a guy. It turned into a meme and a way […]

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 Page Formats: The Pros and Other Pros of the ‘Traditional’ Look

February 13, 2011October 18, 2022 vaehling Arting

This discussion comes up a lot in forums, probably ever since Scott McCloud debated the value of the comic page layout in Reinventing Comics or one of his “I Can’t Stop Thinking” appendices. Why indeed should anybody choose to present a comic page upright when the browser window has a sideways format?

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layout, page design, readability

 Pricing: The Inevitable Question

February 2, 2010September 20, 2018 vaehling 2 Comments Marketing

You may have heard about the quarrel between bookseller Amazon and publisher Macmillan. In a nutshell, Macmillan wanted to sell their eBooks at whatever price they felt was best while Amazon insisted on keeping all eBooks below $9.99. Since Amazon is That Big Market and their Kindle is pretty much the major game in town […]

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apps, digital, download, ePublishing, iPad, tablet

 Sample Scripts: Why I haven’t posted any yet (except now)

January 7, 2010October 18, 2022 vaehling Writing

One thing I’ve always enjoyed on other people’s sites is the possibility to download and read scripts. It helps a lot when you’re preparing to write your own, and it’s still fun when you’re used to writing your own. Always keen on being helpful, I’ve started posting some scripts of mine over at my German […]

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celtx, script

 Counting my Pages

November 6, 2009October 18, 2022 vaehling 1 Comment Book Editing

Right now, I should be thinking about the next Conny Van Ehlsing storyline – the plot idea I had fell apart when I tried to fixate it in writing -, but instead I find myself moving vector blocks around a layout file to simulate the book version. All in all, Vol. 2 will probably be […]

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 More thoughts about formats

June 12, 2009October 18, 2022 vaehling Book Editing

So, once I’ve settled on publishing vol. 1 in one, er, volume, and keeping the smaller units electronic, there isn’t really any point in keeping them at 32 pages, is there? Personally, I like my screen reads short. That’s how I came up with split downloads in the first place. And if you look around, […]

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 Hit Programming: Assumed Audience Approval

May 12, 2009October 18, 2022 vaehling Inspiration, Marketing

Recently on the Whitechapel forum, somebody posted a link to America’s ‘most unwanted song’ that got me thinking (and ranting, on Twitter – if this seems familiar to you, that may be why). This weird yet strangely compelling composition was based on a survey asking people what they really wouldn’t want to hear in a […]

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 Buffer off

May 12, 2009October 18, 2022 vaehling Writing

There’s been a lot of talk in the forums recently about how far ahead of your comic’s updating schedule you should be, and if you should bother at all. There seem to be two schools of thought about this issue, the pro side claiming professionality always shows in time, while the con side is more […]

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buffer, burst culture, schedule, webcomic

 Rethinking, Resizing

April 7, 2009October 18, 2022 vaehling Book Editing

Now I’m thinking of aiming straight for the trade nonetheless: Release a trade of Vol. 1, the way I did in Germany, then continue with “floppies” of Vol. 2. Use both to interest publishers in a Vol. 2 trade.

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 You Can’t Turn the Page while you’re Hanging from a Cliff

December 14, 2008October 18, 2022 vaehling Writing

If I had edited the current story the way I showed you in the previous post, this week’s page would have to be different, too. If you haven’t yet, take your time to read the first three pages according to the original script, then come back here and continue reading. (Of course, these are very […]

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